March 21st has been declared World Animation Theatre Day. This day is celebrated worldwide as a tribute to animation theatre, a driving factor in the development of the personality of children and young people. This year's message is conveyed by the great Argentine master Eduardo di Mauro.

The puppet has its origins in one of the most primitive and original forms of art: from play and not from the representation of the sacred, as has been claimed. It was born from disinterested, spontaneous, transparent play and which, naturally, became increasingly complex, adopting more forms and contents.

The puppet, due to its transgressive nature, was a cause for fear and was persecuted by kings, emperors, emirs, tsars or other abusive forms of power, because this character made of wood and cloth, kind and picturesque, is the bearer of a sharp critical and judgmental talent, using sarcasm, irony, humor with talent, rhythm and cutting effect.

Adolescence is probably the period in life when we identify best with this ancient art, because young people are the bearers of the same type of energy garnished with a passionate irresponsibility, reacting with the same ardor to everything they criticize, admire or judge. Perhaps this is the reason why young people are the preferred target of media campaigns that transform the essential into the banal and make an apology for non-values.

For decades, our theater has dedicated a large part of its efforts to teenagers, promoting themes that interest them and encouraging them to use puppets to express everything that affects and excites them. These are taboo topics such as violence, the mafia, alcoholism, corruption, early pregnancy, loneliness and many others, which it approaches with candor and irreverence.

Puppeteers can, should be able to inspire their creativity through reading, studying, researching, and experimenting with new forms through which to seek beauty and harmony in the stage narrative, never forgetting that puppet theater includes compromise.

Speaking of compromise, a word with many meanings and definitions, I refer especially to our responsibility to understand what our real place is in the world and what our position is regarding the multiple cases of abuse of power within today's society, who are today's kings – emirs, sheikhs? Today you no longer find them sitting on thrones adorned with well-cut precious stones. They prefer to sit in places where no one can see them clearly. They possess means of communication that they hide or flaunt, as they please. This king with a thousand heads is, in fact, corrupt and savage neoliberalism, the tsars are the large multinational corporations, apart from being concerned with increasing their profits and power, but they care little about the destruction of the planet or of life.

Puppeteers from all over the world, let's confront cruelty, inequality and injustice. Using a variety of techniques and aesthetics to give shape to this expressive personality that is the puppet and adding incendiary words, let's point the finger at how these young people, considered lacking in ambition, are fighting for a better and more humane world.

Eduardo Di Mauro Tempo Theater 2014 Venezuela